Sonnet 18 Physical Theatre

Piece:
The stimuli for our movement piece is the first 8 lines of William Shakespeare’s
“Sonnet 18”.
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd;
In the sonnet the writer compares the women he loves to a summer’s day, however he
says that she has more beauty than summer and that her beauty is everlasting
contrasting summer which is fleeting and only occurs annually. The writer continues
to raise the status of his love interests’ beauty higher than that of summer, stating
that the sun can be too hot or darkened by clouds. The writer mentions that
everything eventually decays after time passes and beauty comes to an end.
In order to create a piece of physical theatre inspired by this extract of sonnet, we
analysed the text in order to find main themes that we could physically develop.
 MAIN THEMES:
 Nature
 Love
 Beauty
 Time
Quotes which support this conclusion are:
 Nature – “summer’s day”, “Rough Winds”, “buds”.
 Love – “lovely”, “fair”, “temperate”.
 Beauty – “lovely”, “gold complexion”, “fair”
 Time – “sometime decline”, “day”, “May”, “summer”.

Our group wanted to explore the theme of beauty and lifespan in our piece.
We chose to convey beauty onstage through the concept of a ballerina in a music box
spinning around, the idea behind this decision is that a ballerina in a music box is
recognisably feminine much like the theme of “Mother Nature” in Sonnet 18.
As well as this the ballerina spins accompanied by piano music when the box is
opened, however, when the song finishes so does the movement of the figurine.
Highlighting the temporary nature of beauty also seen in Sonnet 18.

RECORDING OF SONNET 18
PERFORMANCE:
YouTube link to recorded performance: https://youtu.be/56sRCS2lrU0

SELF ANALYSIS:
Some things that went well in our performance included:
Our change of pace was clearly visible when engaging in the spinning chair
lift.
The theme of beauty was clearly communicated by the concept of the ballerina.
I have the following constructive criticism in order to progress our
performance:
The vocal delivery could have been stronger, next time we should ensure we
engage our diaphragm and project. The synchronicity of Macie and I could
be improved with more practice and we should hold the same posture and
gait so that the imagery is more symmetrical.

PHYSICALITY:
The physicality in our piece was heavily influenced by the theme of beauty and
also the fragility of life itself, in the sense that lifespan comes to an inevitable
end.
One member of the ensemble acted as the “Ballerina figurine” her movement
was fluid and elegant, similar to the Laban Effort of Glide which is; Light,
Direct, Slow and Free.
 Our third ensemble member and I worked together either side of “The
ballerina” to aid her in her movement. Our movement was less light and
slow however still direct, mirroring the Laban Effort of Punch which is:
Heavy, Direct, Quick and Bound.
Our piece included a range of movement including a chair lift and turns.
Here is a chronological list of the choreography in our piece:
 Two ensemble members (Macie and I) kneel on one knee turned in
towards “Ballerina” who is sat on their knees, two ensemble members
outstretch their closest hand to the audience.
 “Ballerina” places her hands on top of theirs and slowly gets up.
 Two ensemble members manipulate “Ballerina’s” arms into a balletic
pose.
 My partner ensemble member (Macie) raises her hand to the ballerina’s
face lifting it up.
 I push the “Ballerina’s” right leg backwards moving her into a curtsey-
like position.
 Both ensemble members lift the “ballerina” up into a chair lift, spinning
her around.
 Then the “Ballerina” is placed on her feet.
 The whole group stand in a line, I stand in front of the “ballerina”, with
my back to the audience, blocking them from seeing her, whilst my
fellow ensemble member stands behind.
 The group returns to a horizontal line, the “Ballerina” remains in the
middle.
 My fellow ensemble member and I create a circle around the “Ballerina”
with our arms in an embrace however without touching her.
 The ballerina is hunched.
 Collectively we take three deep breaths in and out while moving our
arms outward and inwardly, the last breath is held longer than the others.
 The “Ballerina” folds to the floor.
 Finally, we hold this position for a few seconds.

VOCALITY:
For our piece it was vital to ensure our vocal delivery was effective in
projection due to the fact that the piece is physically intense, lines can be
difficult to project and be heard while the actor is moving.
We needed to ensure that the lines of the sonnet were audible to the
audience, in order to do this, we used breathing techniques to engage our
diaphragm.
Our group practised controlled breathing; which consists of an inhalation of
8 seconds, holding the air for 4 seconds and then an exhalation of 8 seconds.
By practising this breathing exercise, we engaged our diaphragm and
improved our breath control, breath capacity and projection. The lines had
noticeably more impact after developing our vocal quality due to the fact
that they were louder, more accentuated and they helped to narrate the
through-line of the piece.